Model franchise? United looks to Kansas City and sees its future

Walking into Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kan., feels a bit like stepping into the future. Everything is bright. Pristine. Very blue.

Minnesota United has done just that twice in recent weeks for matches against Sporting Kansas City, an experience that — from the facilities to the team to the culture — could very well be the Loons' own in years to come.

"For me, if we want to model any club in MLS, we shouldn't be looking any farther than Sporting Kansas City," United coach Adrian Heath said in May, ahead of the teams' first of four matchups this season. "Well run. Well organized. Great facilities.

"And it's not what people perceive to be a sexy place, Kansas. But they run a great club. Players are happy there, and that's what we have to try to emulate."

Kansas City, founded in 1995 as one of the 10 original MLS teams, seems to have it all right now. A six-year-old soccer-specific stadium that has won a slew of awards. A current streak of 95 consecutive home sellouts in MLS competition at that stadium. An expansive training facility with a new National Training and Coaching Development Center on the way next year.

A blossoming youth academy. An on-site United Soccer League team. An affiliated National Women's Soccer League squad. Oh, and three major trophies in the past eight seasons along with six consecutive seasons making the playoffs. All done with a fairly modest roster, ranking 16th of 22 MLS teams in total salaries.

United, in its first MLS season, still is chipping away at the foundations of that list. Construction on its own stadium is starting soon. Revamps to its National Sports Center training facility are complete — updated locker rooms and weight rooms, a new players' lounge and boot room — with more coming. Tryouts for a youth academy are underway.

Team owner Bill McGuire said while there's still much to be accomplished, he's proud of what United has done in the about 10 months since officially joining the league. The priority is on building the basics: the team, the philosophy, the stadium and the training facility.

That's pretty close to Kansas City's longtime coach and technical director Peter Vermes' recipe for a successful club: players, staff, facilities, in that order.

When Vermes first came to Kansas City as a player in 2000, players considered a simple water bottle a luxury. Their idea of a lounge was the back seat of a 15-passenger van that functioned as a couch.

"When anybody new comes here for the first time, they see all this, and they go, 'Oh, this is fantastic.' But just remember, there was a time when we had nothing," Vermes said.

Vermes, with 11 years as technical director, is the longest-tenured manager in MLS with eight seasons as coach. The club's five-pronged ownership group has been on board since 2006. Under its tutelage, the club has seen one piece after another fall into place, from the training facility to the stadium to the USL affiliate to the MLS Cup in 2013.

The club's 2010 rebrand from the Kansas City Wizards into its current incarnation was "a second chance to make a first impression," according to Robb Heineman, one of the team's owners and CEO of Sporting Kansas City's parent organization.

Heineman said when he started with Kansas City, it was "arguably the worst professional franchise in the United States," with fewer than 400 season-ticket holders. The team played in 75,000-seat Arrowhead Stadium but drew only about 6,000 to 8,000 fans. The team also played at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, home of a minor-league independent baseball team, before the opening of its own stadium.

"There were no fans there, so it pretty much seemed like soccer was not in here in the city," said midfielder Roger Espinoza, who first played for Kansas City in 2008. "You knew you were playing professional, but at the same time, you thought that you had more people at your college games."

To go from that to nearing a 100-match sellout record is the product of a fan-focused approach.

"We kind of caught lightning in the bottle a little bit," Heineman said. "We had a really good rebrand. We had a nice stadium. And we had a team that was performing well. … And then, I mean, our community has just been wonderful."

On that front, United is doing pretty well. Its supporters groups have been dedicated since long before the team joined the top division. Under McGuire's ownership since 2012, United emerged from near-extinction at the North American Soccer League level to persevere as a major-league club.

United differs from Kansas City in one key respect. Minnesota United's $150 million stadium is privately financed. Kansas City, in building $200 million Children's Mercy Park, used sales tax revenue bonds to help pay for developing major commercial, entertainment and tourism areas. Thus, much of United's capital is aimed at the stadium instead of other potential projects.

But even for Kansas City, it has been steady development throughout the past 10 years.

"The curse word, if you will, is time," Vermes said. "It takes time to build something, and you have to have a little bit of patience with that."

Heath understands the importance of sticking out a plan. As the longtime coach of Orlando City SC, where his team was a former USL affiliate of Kansas City, Heath said Orlando overhauled its three-year plan after joining MLS, which included firing him.

Now at United, Heath is looking eight or nine years ahead and seeing the Loons looking a lot like Kansas City: A solid team, without flashy big-name players, playing entertaining soccer and drawing fans to a state-of-the-art new stadium.

"It's early,'' McGuire said, "and you have to tolerate a few inconsistencies, but this is really the time when we set the stage for the long term and the future.

"We're going to get there."